Word: stith
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...forefront of the new movement are two leading proponents of urban bootstrap economics: Danny J. Bakewell, a wealthy real estate developer and president of the Brotherhood Crusade; and the Rev. Charles R. Stith, president and founder of the seven-year-old Organization for a New Equality (ONE) in Boston. Both men are pushing versions of the same idea: that economics is the key building block of political power. As Stith points out, in the U.S. the median white family's net worth is about $43,000, in contrast to $4,100 for the median black household. "The inescapable conclusion...
...Stith, 43, pastor of the 500-member Union United Methodist Church in Boston's South End, points to a potentially powerful legal tool for achieving these goals: the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977. It requires banks to make loans to low-income individuals or poor-risk companies in their own neighborhoods. It has been widely used to counter mortgage redlining and has proved a boon to the nation's 40-plus black banks...
...Stith and others believe that the act could be a significant weapon for black progress in the '90s. "It's important to be able to have access to ride in the front of the bus," says Stith. "But at some point you've got to be concerned about the ability to own the bus company. The Community Reinvestment Act is the leverage we need to get access to credit and capital to buy the bus company...
...Stith's ONE has invoked the act to persuade Boston banks to invest $500 million in the city's minority communities over the next 10 years. ONE has also created a network of organizations in 38 cities to bring bankers and - black community leaders together. In an often acrimonious racial climate, says Stith, the network provides "a place where people can check their guns at the door and still talk about some of the real opportunities...
This year Stith's group plans to launch a national campaign to improve black economic literacy. Through neighborhood classes and seminars, the effort would teach such skills as obtaining credit, shopping for interest rates and building equity. It would also teach historically bank-wary blacks, who often pay as much as 20% of the face value of checks to cash them at check-cashing outlets, how to use banks. "We need to learn how to use our money more wisely," says Stith. "We've got to begin to think with an economic mind...